Monday, December 08, 2008

Bugs Dies 1 - McKimson - Disney Principles - solid drawing

Here is more solid drawing and direct animation, with no reliance on tricks by Bob McKimson.Note how all the wrinkles wrap around the characters' forms, and in perspective when they tilt their heads.McKimson animated the best death scenes. All very subtle, carefully drawn and animated stuff.McKimson always said that the WB artists took their lead from Disney, but except for the good drawing, this is nothing like Disney. McKimson had his own way of animating that was just very direct and to the point.http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/Clampett/45OldGrayHare/bugsdeath1short.mov

This is comedy executed brilliantly, the moment you don't know if you should cry of laugh. The very best Warner cartoons had this. Marc Anthony crying because he thought the kitten was killed in FEED THE KITTY is one example. I would even count when Bug's feels so trimuphant and then loses the race to the tortise in TORTISE WINS BY A HARE. Bugs pain and fusteration is just so hilarous and sad.

Stepping through the .mov, I noticed a continuity error in Elmer - right after Bugs says "Who turned out the lights?" Elmer looks up, as if to check the lights (hilarious), but as he does, his grey mustache disappears for a few frames.

I like the microgag of Elmer looking around when Bugs says, 'Who turned out the lights?'.

Clampett's good at layering laughs. You can find the cartoon mayhem funny but if you look closer you can laugh at the subtle stuff too. Another example in this cartoon is Elmer's musical crying when Bugs is digging his own grave.

...To say nothing of the shrewdly observed, realistic pattern of wrinkles on the characters - McKimson obviously studied real old people - and the volumes of subtle detail and character nuance that went into the skillful acting.

This is one of those scenes that, once viewed, is never forgotten. The whole thing turns out to be farcical, of course, pure "bait" for the audience. But even so, it's actually a more affecting death scene than in most legitimately serious films! Pretty amazing.

Somehow I knew you were going to talk about this scene. I loved this scene. Also, this is my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoon out of them all.

I think I like it now because McKimson could move wrinkly old cartoons around in a way that left me amazed at how rock-solid everything was. On the flipside, Scribner seemed to take advantage of how expressive old people could be with their wrinkly features and I bet he had fun with it.

Thanks for posting the exercise idea with this cartoon as well. I thought I was cheating before when I did this kind of thing with screenshots, but if it helps you learn quickly, I'll keep doing it.

Wow, I've never been a big fan of Robert McKimson's directing, but I'm amazed at what an incredible animator he was. This has to be one of the best death scenes they ever did. I remember as a young kid, this cartoon actually upset me because I thought Bugs was gone for good! And yet this is one of the few as a kid I would watch over and over again! This is a great cartoon, and I never knew beforehand that Clampett was responsible for it. Great, great stuff.